I had no idea how old the belts were on the 4Runner, but they made sure I knew they were old. Every startup came with that lovely screeching soundtrack of “replace me!” that tightening couldn’t fix. After a week of pretending it would magically go away, I finally broke down and decided to swap them out.

The job itself wasn’t bad—quick, dirty, and pretty straightforward. The only real pain was the power steering tensioner, which seems purposefully designed to test your patience and flexibility. Everything else was easy to reach and went smoothly once I got into a rhythm.

After a bit of back-and-forth on tension, I set each belt with about a quarter inch of play and called it good. Tossed the old ones in the back for emergencies—because let’s be honest, a worn-out belt is still better than no belt when you’re stranded somewhere.

Quiet startups, no drama, and one less noise to drown out with the radio.